Guides and ideas for running a shop: point of sale, stock and the numbers that matter.
Stock and inventory mean the same goods in accounting and tax law. What the popular finished-goods split gets wrong, shown on a GHS bakery example, and the three places the words really differ.
Four ways to forecast stock, tried on one seasonal product, so you can see which one misses the school-term spike, then the forecast turned into an order in cartons.
Holding cost rate = (capital + storage + service + risk) ÷ average inventory value. A worked UGX example shows why an African shop lands near 40%, not the textbook 20-30%.
A category scorecard worked in naira shows why the highest-margin shelf can be the worst use of stock money, and which levers to pull first.
What causes inventory shrinkage, the two ways to state the rate and why they differ, what a loss costs you in extra sales, and the controls that cut it.
How many days your stock sits before it sells, worked step by step for a Nairobi shop, with why published DIO figures disagree and what DIO means for your cash.
FIFO, weighted average and specific identification, run through one quarter of sugar sales in UGX, with the IAS 2 and Uganda tax rules and the write-down step most guides skip.
Cost of goods sold divided by average inventory, worked step by step for a shop with no accounts, then split by product group to show where the money sits still.
Seven steps in the order that works: list, code, place, count, record, reorder, recount. Each with a done-when test and an example in TZS.
Five tool types side by side, which one fits your shop, what the hardware costs in Kenya, and eight tests to run on any tool before you choose.
A till-only POS sees two of the eight things that happen to a carton of stock. Follow one carton of soap, then answer five questions to see if one system is enough.
A link that sends only sales can make a day's profit look six times too high. Here is the entry each POS event should post, and a worked day in UGX.
